burnitblack | Deer Country In-Box

[ Kizu watches his tactics, following his paw, watching it send the helpless one flying through the air, where it's scorched on the sand for a ready mouth. She understands the call of the hunt, but never the joy of a kill. Maybe that's the difference between them. Still, she mimics his movement and sends a fish through the air, watching it hit the ground but makes no move to chase after it. It's not hers after all.

Shouto watches Touya the way he's always watched him, from afar. This time, no one stops him from joining him. He walks beside him, not realizing he might be looking a little too intently. It's odd that. Few things catch his attention to earn the staring, probably why no one's ever pointed it out.

Pleased with his finding, Shouto slips the small bottle in his back pocket and steps next to Touya to walk beside him. ]

Do you take something for the pain?

[once wolf figures out kizu isn't going to eat what she catches, he heads to her catch and fries it before wolfing the burned fish down. it's not a common thing, as many fish don't stray close to the shores of the black beach, and wolf isn't going to walk out into deeper water to find them. but it's something to do while his sleeper does whatever he's doing with his little brother.

touya swings a large, sturdy cloth bag down from his side and pulls it open. the walls of the bag are lined with strips of cloth, sewn into the bag's fabric to serve as holders for whatever he finds. other things just get stuck in there. it's a modified carry-all bag. while shouto takes the bottle and puts it into his back pocket (touya's not going to say that's a good idea, but whatever), he crouches down to inspect another item on the shore. it's a shell, but broken apart... hm.

too wrecked to fix? ... yeah. moving on.]

Don't feel pain.

[ It’s odd, isn’t it? These two omens, so outwardly different, finding their own way of being around each other. Similar to the two Sleepers combing the beach for curiosities. ]

Any?

[ Shouto asks, brows creasing at the comment. All those staples… ]

Doesn’t it hurt?

[he would always say wolf isn't him even if the omen's something of a reflection. just because wolf gets along with people a bit better than touya doesn't mean touya will. but he's getting along with shouto right now, so... maybe?]

That's what "don't feel pain" means, Shouto.

[how completely dense can you be?]

Wolf isn't any more like Touya than Kizu is of him. They're a reflection of a soul, not the soul itself. Perspective matters.

Why don't you feel pain.

[ It's not that he doesn't understand. It's that it doesn't make sense. He doesn't think his quirk has anything to do with pain receptors. ]

[touya seeks to keep wolf separate from himself regardless, treating him more like a summoned familiar than anything else. a servant, weapon, occasionally a teammate. maybe a pet every now and then...]

Cause I was burned to death, Shouto. What'd Dad not tell ya what happened at Sekoto?

[ In contrast, he's close to his omen, following her lead before the attack that reduced her to her current form. His constant companion, she held sway over him, but even she couldn't stop him from seeking out his only family here. Obstinate, Shouto sought him out, wanting to know him. But this...

He draws a quick breath, stepping back in alarm. At a loss for words, the silence drags on, mind scrambling at the confession and stuttering to a stop. ]

I--

He never... they never...

I didn't know.

[touya will never let anyone or anything hold sway over him again. he escaped from that hell and does what he wants when he wants as he wants how he wants for his own damn reasons and no one else's. he cares nothing for anyone or anything enough to allow them to think they can force him into anything. not even all for one could...

shouto's reaction to the information once again makes touya consider the different time periods he and shouto were taken from in their worlds. what his little brother knows versus what he doesn't. it's been a long time since he thought of that. ah well, it doesn't really matte in the long run.

he keeps walking, not bothering to pity or coddle shouto's reaction.]

Not surprisin. Enji always wished I was gone.

[ One escaped. The other molded. Chipped away until he resembled someone else's masterpiece at the cost of his soul. His bland expressions. Why it's so hard to get a rise out of him. It all comes from the same source.

Endeavor never coddled him and after his mother was locked away Shouto stopped seeking out human comfort. Content with the cold inside and out. ]

Why?

[ He asks, utterly at a disadvantage here. No one ever spoke of the oldest Todoroki for as long as he could remember. At least not in his presence. ]

[endeavor's precious perfect little puppet masterpiece. crafted from the blood, sweat, tears, time, and existence of the rest of the experiments that came and went before shouto's creation. in some ways, dabi and shouto are similar, but most similarities are fueled by vast differences despite the same source...

human comfort is overrated. it comes with too many risks outside of a quick physical tryst that means absolutely nothing outside of a brief escape from reality. though the cold doesn't bother touya, he still prefers the heat.]

People don't like lookin at failures.

[sensing his brother's lack of knowledge about this, touya has to decide how he wants to navigate or explain. mostly because there's no endeavor here to fuel any deliberate venom. it'd be pointless.]

Deer Country In-Box

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